So on Tuesday at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, it stands to reason she was a little cranky, even though the music was delightful.

Merchant's show was heavy on material from her new poetry-centric album Leave Your Sleep, and was full of "oft-unsettling dance moves, her vaguely affected snobbery and, of course, that supernaturally beautiful voice," Sean writes in his concert review. She even played the old 10,000 Maniacs jam Hey Jack Kerouac. But hey, let's talk about that cranky stage banter for a sec::

Thirty minutes into her long, lovely if especially prickly show at Ruth Eckerd Hall on Tuesday, the singer dedicated the spicy lil' number The Peppery Man to the Columbia Restaurant, which "gave me the worst case of food poisoning of my life. … That's not Spanish food. The house salad looked like something in my compost bucket."

Wow, way to ingratiate yourself with the Tampa Bay peeps, Nat! Next time, why don't you just wear a Red Sox jersey or shout, "No one rocks like Orlando!"